Cable is making a stronger and stronger case for sports, and even more supporting evidence came in last week. TBS’s and TNT’s NBA playoff games and FX’s coverage of the "NASCAR Pontiac Excitement 400" all scored big ratings in households, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.
    Among adults 18-49, six of the top 10 programs for the week were sports programs. That number goes to eight, if you consider the WWF a sport.
   That left MTV’s "Jackass" and Comedy Central’s "South Park" as the only regular entertainment programs in the top 10 for the demographic last week.
   The same dominance of sports programming held true among adults 25-54. Two Lifetime movies were the only non-sports offerings in the top 10.
    The NBA’s ratings are on the rise, of course, because the league is now in the playoffs. But NASCAR’s boost is due to the promotional effort that Fox has put behind it on both its broadcast network and FX.
    "Fox has done a terrific job of marketing NASCAR this year," says Don Hinchey, director of creative services at the Bonham Group. "They’ve made some innovations in the production. They’ve got a ticker across the top and a spotlight on cars around the track."
    Saturday night’s NASCAR race was the highest-rated sports event on cable last week. The race was the third-highest-rated program for the week in households, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54. The program was viewed by an average of 2.6 million households, 2.7 million adults 18-49, and 2.9 million adults 25-54 during its 3.5 hour broadcast.
    FX’s Winston Cup pre-race show also ranked seventh for the week in households, fifth among adults 18-49 and fourth among adults 25-54. The half-hour pre-race show garnered 1.7 million adults 18-49 and 1.8 million adults 25-54.
    For the NBA, the more exciting playoff competition translated into six of its games ranking among the top programs last week-- five games on TNT and one game on TBS.
    As the Bonham Group’s Hinchey notes, "Things like innovative production can help [sports ratings]. But games decided by a buzzer can help too."
    In households, five NBA games--TBS’s Jazz-Mavericks game on Tuesday and TNT’s Raptors-Knicks game on Friday, the Mavericks-Jazz game on Thursday, the Spurs-Timberwolves game on Monday, and the Knicks-Raptors game on Wednesday-- ranked 11^th, 11^th, 18^th, 22^nd, and 31^st, respectively.
    The TBS game earned a 2.4 rating, reaching 2 million homes, while the four TNT games averaged a 2.3 rating and 1.8 million homes.
    Three of those games--TBS’s Jazz-Mavericks game on Tuesday and TNT’s Mavericks-Jazz game on Thursday and the Raptors-Knicks game on Friday--also landed in the top 10 for both adults 18-49 and adults 25-54. 
    Those three games averaged 1.5 million adults 18-49 and 1.5 million adults 25-54.
    Additionally, Wednesday night’s Knicks-Raptors game on TNT ranked tenth for the week among adults 25-54 with 1.3 million viewers in the demographic, while the game that immediately followed it, the Kings versus the Suns, ranked tenth among adults 18-49 with 1.3 million viewers in that demographic.
    These sporting events pushed TNT to first place during primetime among adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 last week, and to third place during primetime in households. 
    TBS finished in second place during primetime for the week among adults 18-49 and 25-54 and fifth in households. FX was fifth in adults 18-49 and 25-54 and ninth in households.

May 10, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Elizabeth White is a staff writer for Media Life.

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